Take a walk around UNC Charlotte’s campus on any given day and it won’t take you long to spot students sporting collegiate apparel of another university.We, as UNC Charlotte 49ers, have become too comfortable with the lack of school spirit on campus and around the city of Charlotte. The Niner Nation has settled with what little tradition we have, and too many students have it fixed in their heads that we will never be like UNC Chapel Hill or Duke University in terms of recognition.
The best part is the picture on the other side of the page with random students opinions on how to increase school spirit. “free t-shirts” “more emails” (we get 8 emails a day about athletics as students) “it will take more time to build the program” “don’t know what other schools do differently” and “not enough sports following”
I wish they would have asked even one student I’ve ever seen at an athletic event for an opinion.
But the article is exactly right. School spirit is not where it should be.
Obviously school spirit needs to improve but its not as bad as that article makes it out to be.
I feel like it is there a bit, but in pieces (like here for example). One thing I saw from another article needs to be explained a bit. We need people to realize that once they come to Charlotte, they are no longer Tar Heels, Devils, Wolfpacks, Hokies, Pirates or anything else. You are now a charlotte 49er and you only bleed green and white. It’s fine to cheer for another team, but the school you go to should be your main one.
Winning would solve this, along with most everything.
Personally I always have thought we are simply too accepting of others loyalties to different schools. Per this article it is not uncommon to go onto campus and see a student wearing UNC-CH gear and just say “well I have always been a tar heel fan since I was young” and everyone smiles and nods. I assure you that if you were at Duke and said that your fellow classmates you let you hear it. We need to get on kids for not following their own school. I give alumni $hit every time I see them. I know a kid that is a Duke fan and every time he says something like “well we have coach K” I say “really he moved to Charlotte? Oh you mean THEY have coach K we have Major.” Same thing with the alumnus that are Chapel hill fans. I never let them not hear it. Believe or not it does actually get them to start caring more about their own school. However it took me about two years of riding them to get them to start to turn around.
Same story, different year.
Winning solves a lot.
One of the most surprising and proudest moments that I experienced as a Charlotte 49er was a few years ago when my wife and I were approaching Halton Arena to attend a game. About a hundred yards or so from the arena we saw hundreds of students already lined up to get into the game. Then the crowd started getting rowdy and chanting loudly in unison “Take it off! Take it off!” As we got to where the crowd of students was, we could finally see that they were shaming a fellow student (I suppose) into taking off a tarheel hoody or shirt. When the garment came off, the crowd burst into applause and cheers. I would say that was definitely a great display of school spirit that day.
Making the NCAA would have helped. A NIT game in Halton next week would have even helped some. I’ll step out on a limb as say the level of enthusiasm is down among alumni too. Even though we won 21 games this year, Halton was not as full or as loud as in past years.
“Anyone who truly believes that Charlotte’s football team is capable of having a winning season this fall, the first football season ever for the Charlotte 49ers, is in for a rude wakeup call.”
Maybe I’m in for a rude wake up call. I thought we’d go 9-3 this year in football but truly can’t say I’ve evaluated the talent we have at this point.
[quote=“ninermike, post:10, topic:27641”]“Anyone who truly believes that Charlotte’s football team is capable of having a winning season this fall, the first football season ever for the Charlotte 49ers, is in for a rude wakeup call.”
Maybe I’m in for a rude wake up call. I thought we’d go 9-3 this year in football but truly can’t say I’ve evaluated the talent we have at this point.[/quote]
Same here, if we have a losing record at the end of the season I will be disappointed. With our schedule I believe we should be able to make some noise in our first season.
[quote=“ninermike, post:10, topic:27641”]“Anyone who truly believes that Charlotte’s football team is capable of having a winning season this fall, the first football season ever for the Charlotte 49ers, is in for a rude wakeup call.”
Maybe I’m in for a rude wake up call. I thought we’d go 9-3 this year in football but truly can’t say I’ve evaluated the talent we have at this point.[/quote]
I’ve looked over the opponents talent and have us 7-4
I have us at 8-3, but I confess I am a little bias.
Problem is television exposure to the casual fan. Growing up in eastern NC in the 80’s and 90’s Raycomm Sports put the ACC on the map for me. Every weekend NCSU, the tarholes, Wake Forest or Duke was on TV playing basketball or football. The school has to get more in-state TV exposure for the University. Alumni is a long term answer. Wal-Mart fans are what we need if we want to compete with other schools in the state in fan base.
One of the most surprising and proudest moments that I experienced as a Charlotte 49er was a few years ago when my wife and I were approaching Halton Arena to attend a game. About a hundred yards or so from the arena we saw hundreds of students already lined up to get into the game. Then the crowd started getting rowdy and chanting loudly in unison “Take it off! Take it off!” As we got to where the crowd of students was, we could finally see that they were shaming a fellow student (I suppose) into taking off a tarheel hoody or shirt. When the garment came off, the crowd burst into applause and cheers. I would say that was definitely a great display of school spirit that day.[/quote]
I also recall this happening during some games early in the year during our undefeated streak. It sorta died out once we lost to Miami.
If UNC-CH, Duke, and NCSU are all in different conferences a year from now they will have shot themselves in the foot. It may take a generation but it will happen. Just like most of us growing up, it is the rivalries with your friends that make people such fans of these schools and they are about to throw that all away. I guess little Pack fans can hope they run into an Iowa State fan at school after a big win so they can talk smack, but it isn’t likely.
[quote=“ninermike, post:10, topic:27641”]“Anyone who truly believes that Charlotte’s football team is capable of having a winning season this fall, the first football season ever for the Charlotte 49ers, is in for a rude wakeup call.”
Maybe I’m in for a rude wake up call. I thought we’d go 9-3 this year in football but truly can’t say I’ve evaluated the talent we have at this point.[/quote]
Where did that quote come from? ODU went 9-2 in their first season and 8-3 in their second season playing similar competition as we will be in our first two seasons. I don’t expect to beat ODU or Coastal this fall, but I’ll be disappointed to lose any of the other games. That’s lofty expectations, but ODU has set the bar high and I don’t see why we can’t do the same. After the NCCU game I think we’ll have a pretty clear picture of how we’ll wind up for the year, but if people don’t think we’re capable of a winning season they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.
No one wants to be associated with a loser.
We need multiple deep tournament runs in basketball and New Years day bowl wins in football. Until one or both of those things happen, we are stuck we we are for the foreseeable future.
VCU has been the media’s darling for the past couple of seasons. While their student and fan support is more impressive than most schools at this level, I guarantee they still have VT and UVA fans, especially in football, and it is all over their campus.
… wrong thread
clt says the school spirit gets better every year. football will be epic.